Things are not going so great for this country. The economy is the pits, and Americans are losing jobs by the barrel-ful. Marketing is as strong arm as ever, making our citizens believe that they absolutely MUST have the next big “thing” – whatever it may be, whether it be a cellphone or a computer. All of the next big THINGS have updated versions which are bigger and better, which means that the time to purchase is NOW.

In lieu of saving for that cellphone that you are on a waiting list for, if you are the usual American you are more apt to buy now, and think about paying later. Then maybe you lose your job, or those hours at work you were depending on get cut down drastically. Now you find that you are in a heap of debt that you cannot pay off, and that debt collector is calling. And calling.

It is an honest fact that more Americans have neglected to make their payments and let their accounts go delinquent, while companies, who are also suffering, have become more ardently focused on collecting on those overdue accounts or selling them off.

That’s where the bill collectors step in. According to research in the field, customer complaints of threats of violence, calling at inconvenient times and cursing have increased in parallel with one another. However, complaints about repeated calls have shot sky high from 15,000 to 41,000 far outnumbering other complaints. Roughly, during this same time period, complaints about violence only rose from 2,000 to 4,000, obscene language from 8,000 to 15,000, and inconvenient calls from 2,500 to 10,000.

From a personal perspective, my mother had just finished up letting me know just last week that a store credit card bill that she had was about to be due, and the store anticipated her payment to be late. She received multiple calls a day, every day, starting at eight in the morning, and ending at eight thirty at night. To Be Continued In Part Two…

Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on national collection agencies. Free reprint avaialable from: Debt Collectors Are Calling More And More Often As Economy Suffers Part One.

In article one in this three piece series on the very essentials of debt collection, I spoke about the differences between third party debt collectors and in house debt collectors. But no matter what institution or entity they are employed by, the goals of debt collectors are the same. First, they need to find the people or businesses that owe the debt, and inform them that they are delinquent in their payments. Usually, collection agents will reach a debtor over the phone, but they are known to send mail as well.

Those people who owe the cash are called debtors, or consumers, and at times they may move without leaving a forwarding address or appropriate phone number. Sometimes this is done on purpose to avoid being contacted by the debt collectors, other times this is just a mistake. In these cases, the collection agents may check with telephone companies, the post office, credit bureaus, and former neighbors to get the new address.

If a debt collector gets a hold of a debtor’s neighbor, they are strictly prohibited from telling that neighbor why they need the number, and are not permitted to say that the debtor owes a debt. The process of tracking down a debtor’s new address or phone number is called “skip tracing.” Debt collectors will use computer systems to track when debtors or companies change their contact information on any of their open accounts automatically.

As soon as the bill collectors find the debtors they will contact them to let them know about overdue accounts and to ask for a payment. Collection agents typically call from 1-800 numbers and must verify that they are talking with you before they can proceed. If anyone else picks up the phone, they cannot inform them of your debt, all they can do is ask that you call them back at such and such number.

If a debt collector is able to get in contact with a consumer, and verifies that they are talking to them, they will let them know their name, the details of their overdue accounts, and that this is an attempt to collect and anything said in this conversation may be used for the purposes of collection. To Be Continued In Part Three.

Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on medical collection agencies. This article, The Bare Essentials Of Debt Collecting Part Two is released under a creative commons attribution licence.

Are you a newcomer when it comes to playing the stock market? No big deal at all! This series of articles on mutual funds will make it simple for you to understand what a mutual fund is, what it is all about and whether it is worth your while to invest in one. My first three articles are called “Mutual Funds For Beginners” and they lay down the basics.

The next one is titled “Expenses Associated With Mutual Funds” and it goes over the general things you can expect to be charged for if you make the choice to invest in a mutual fund. The last two are called “Is Investing in a mutual fund worth your while?” and they cover the pros and cons of mutual funds. First let’s break things down to a molecular level and talk about securities. The fancy definition of a security is a negotiable instrument representing financial value.

This definition is kind of hard to grasp so let us take a look at an example of a security to help you get a better idea of what one is. A stock is considered a security. Stocks can be purchased or sold, and therefore have financial value, and a share of stock literally means that as a stockholder you “share” a fraction of ownership in the company whose stock you own. Bonds, which are contracts to pay back money with interest on specified dates, are also securities. If you hold a bond, you know that you are going to receive money on these set dates, so bonds have financial value as well.

Stocks are bought and sold at exchanges called stock markets, and bonds at bonds markets. A bonds market is typically very different from a stock market. If you were looking to invest in stock, or sell the stock you have, you would hire the aid of a stock broker who would charge you a commission for completing this work for you.

Generally, unless you already own stock from the company you would like to purchase from, you are going to need some sort of a broker to help you do this. The same goes for bonds – you are going to need a dealer. Now that we have the very basics down, let’s go over mutual funds. See my article “Mutual Funds For Beginners Part Two!

Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on medical collection agencies. Check here for free reprint licence: Understanding Mutual Funds Part One.